Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 38 - This Choice Has Consequences (Patreon)

Title Unlocked!

All 1,000: This is a common title that everyone receives when they have reached 1,000 stat points in all 6 attributes.

You have received +20 to all stats!

Title Unlocked!

First All 1,000: You are the first person from your world to reach 1,000 stat points in all 6 attributes.

You have received +40 to all stats!

Xavier grinned, reading the notifications over for the fourth time. Sixty points to all stats. He’d taken his stats even further than he’d needed to. They weren’t each just at 1,000, they were higher than that. When he’d reached Level 62, he’d thrown his twenty free stat points straight into Willpower, wanting to boost his control of the enemy as best as he could.

He was glad that wasn’t the only boost the attribute had received.

As Xavier stood on that parapet, having defeated the last wave in a shocking fifteen minutes, he looked out at the next, taking a deep breath.

It was time.

Playing the System’s game, waiting an hour for each wave to come, would make it impossible for him to reach Level 100 in the next twenty-four hours. No, it would probably take at least two months the old-fashioned way.

The odds were against him surviving. But that just meant he needed to change the game.

“Xavier?”

Xavier blinked. He was still standing atop the parapet, staring out at the Endless Horde. He looked over his shoulder and down at Siobhan. His gaze made her take an almost imperceptible step back. He felt a hint of fear coming off her. Something primal within him stirred, glad for that.

He frowned, shrugging the feeling away. Why would I be glad she’s afraid?

“Yes?” Xavier said.

“Are you really going to do this?” She waved out at the horde. “What if—”

“I die?” He turned from her. “I’ll die if I don’t do it.” He looked at his hands. Clenched them into fists. He felt so damned strong. So damned powerful.

Degeneration Countdown Timer: 23 hours 46 minutes and 27 seconds.

He sighed, looking at the countdown. He’d put it into the top-right corner of his vision as a constant reminder. To keep him grounded. To keep him pushing.

“Maybe there’s a way to fix what you’re going through back at the tower. Sam could have a solution.”

“Even if that man knew how to help me,” Xavier said, “I doubt the System would let him. And there’s no other way I’d be able to gain the needed levels without the Endless Horde. Not in time. You know that.”

Siobhan went quiet. All he heard was her breathing. He could tell she wanted to keep arguing, but it wasn’t as though she had any better ideas. He supposed it was nice that she didn’t want him to die, though.

I’m not going to die.

“I’m strong enough to take them on. I can take on more than one wave. I’ve done it before and became stronger for it.” Xavier relaxed his hands, fists slowly opening.

“Sooner or later, those foot soldiers and beasts in the wave are going to be of E Grade rank,” Siobhan said in a quiet voice. “You’ve said yourself, they’re already level 99 now.”

Xavier dipped his head. She was right. But that fact didn’t make him worry.

It made him smile.

“When that happens, I’ll be ready for them.”

Xavier’s words came out in a low growl, one that made him pause. He looked down at himself. At his fingernails-turned-claws.

I am turning into something else.

Justin told him they’d all changed since the System came. That he shouldn’t bother worrying about it. But Xavier couldn’t help the hint of worry that blossomed in his chest at the sound of his own voice.

“I hope you’re right, Xavier. You’re Earth’s only hope.” Siobhan’s footsteps receded along the stone.

Xavier contemplated her words. Earth’s only hope. None of them had used those words before, but she was right. Without Earth’s Progenitor, his planet wouldn’t stand a chance against the invaders.

All the more reason for me to live.

The others stood on the battlements behind him. Howard, Justin, Queen Alastea, and Advisor Kalren. Their expressions varied, but he knew each of them were worried. Whatever happened, his party would survive, but something told him Kalren would refuse to step through that portal—he would die by his queen’s side even though there would be nothing he could do to defend her.

Xavier wasn’t sure whether to call that honourable or foolish. Perhaps it was something in between.

“Howard,” Xavier called.

The cop came over to him, looking up at where he stood on the wall, an eyebrow raised.

Xavier summoned the Sector Travel Key from his Storage Ring and held it out for the man.

Howard frowned. “What’s this for?”

Xavier bit his lip. “If I die out there, take the others back through to the Staging Room.” He nodded at the key. “When you get back to Earth, if things are… beyond help, take the others. Take your family. Go somewhere else in the sector. Somewhere safe.”

Howard looked at Xavier, then at the key. He reached up but didn’t take it. Instead, he closed Xavier fingers around it. “You aren’t going to die. And we aren’t going to run and hide. You can do this.” He stalked back to the others, crossing his arms at his chest as he stood with them, facing Xavier’s way.

Xavier smirked, deposited the Sector Travel Key back into his Storage Ring. There was still more than half an hour until the next wave began. But that didn’t matter.

Xavier wasn’t going to wait anymore.

“E Grade, here I come,” he muttered. He looked at those gathered behind him. “I’ll see you all soon.”

Perhaps he should have felt fear as he leapt off that parapet and landed on the other side of the moat, summoning Soultaker to his hands and gripping its haft tight. Perhaps he should have worried about what would come next. But he didn’t feel any of that. It was just him and the enemies in front of him. Him and the souls he was about to reap. The minds he was to control.

As he sprinted toward his enemies, his mouth opened wide and a noise escaped. Not the war cry of a soldier on the front line, charging ahead. No—this was something inhuman. A bestial howl—one that sounded an awful lot like a wolf’s.

Or a wolven’s.

The System’s control of the Endless Horde’s waves was to give those they attacked a fighting chance, so he was almost positive his plan would work.

He gazed at the front line. The next wave was mostly comprised of human soldiers. The first line of which were spear wielders with large tower shields and spears longer than his own scythe-staff. Monstrous, fifteen-foot-long things.

The soldiers eyed his approach. They looked at each other. At first, they had confused frowns. Then they shifted from foot to foot. Until finally shouts rang out all around. Shields came up, aligned neighbour to neighbour, their clang ringing out in the night. A shield wall. None of the waves within the Endless Horde had ever employed such a tactic before.

Xavier grinned. Worry and fear rippled through the lines of soldiers. The Endless Horde were the big bads of this sector. The most powerful entity within it. He wondered if something like this had ever happened to them.

He launched a 120-infused Soul Strike toward the line of enemies. It flew through their shields as though they weren’t there at all. It took out an entire clump of soldiers. His Spirit attribute was still his strongest, Soul Strike his most powerful asset. He was no longer surprised by the devastation it wrought upon the enemy.

The moment it hit, there was a booming sound. It took him a while to notice what it was. To recognise it. He should have known instantly.

War drums.

But this wasn’t just war drums from one wave, like he was used to. War drums were ringing out everywhere.

A notification appeared over his vision.

You have struck a blow against the Endless Horde before their next timed wave.

This choice has consequences.

The Endless Horde are no longer limited to triggering their waves every hour. The Endless Horde may start a wave every 30 minutes.

Be cautious of your next step.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier didn’t pause his run as he read the notification.

Instead, he laughed. The consequence was far more minimal than he’d anticipated. He’d expected something very, very different. Every half hour still wouldn’t be enough for him, however. So far, there was only one E Grade enemy per wave, and he was only able to get enough Mastery Points to make a real difference from those wave bosses. He hesitated to even do the math—but if it took roughly twenty-four waves for him to gain a single level…

That’s only two levels in the next twenty-four hours.

Xavier was fifty feet away from the front line when he sent purple mist flowing from Soultaker. Killing the soldiers wasn’t worth much to him right now. His Toughness, coupled with his new Tissue Regeneration trait, was such that he didn’t need to worry about them killing him—at least not easily—but what he did need to worry about was them overwhelming him and limiting his movements.

The purple mist hit the shield wall. A moment later, over a hundred soldiers were under his control.

He chuckled to himself when he gave them the first command.

Take me to your leader.

It was the best way he’d come up with for finding the wave boss.

The soldiers all turned in unison. Xavier had gotten used to controlling his enemies, so it wasn’t too strange a thing to see. As he reached them, they made a hole for him, turning their shields up to block their own allies, forming an honour guard around him like the one he’d had back on the third floor.

He felt the soldiers he controlled die. Their allies didn’t hesitate to strike them down, knowing they were under his control. They were well aware of Xavier’s tricks by now. The waves always observed his tactics and tried to adapt to them. If he were weaker, that approach might have worked quite well. It probably would have spelled his death waves and waves ago.

Instead, it just meant they did his job for him—killing their own. He didn’t need the soldiers to protect him or show him the way. Over the last twenty-four hours he’d been practising and learning how to stretch his abilities to their current limits. Though he still wasn’t able to split his mind into more than two parts, he was finding it a hell of a lot easier to slip his mind into the bodies of those he controlled. With half of his consciousness taking to this task, he’d slowly learnt how to not only feel what the Denizen he controlled felt—but he could actually read their thoughts to a small degree.

He could skim the surface of their mind. And, with the ability to command them, he could steer what those thoughts might be.

The moment he’d commanded the soldiers to take him to their leader, he got an image of exactly where their wave boss was, and what they looked like.

Xavier leapt up over the soldiers. Though he still wished he had the type of mobility that Justin’s skills offered, he’d started to learn how to get around. With his Speed and Strength as high as they were, he could leap straight over the soldiers and use their heads like stepping stones. It was almost like crowd surfing, except each time his foot came down it gave him the chance to break one of the enemy’s necks.

It took him less than a minute to find the E Grade wave boss.

And less than a minute to kill them.

Bring on the next wave.